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[wallworm]

There has been a longtime confusion among many WW users regarding the proper way to use the Local Origin as World Origin in WWMT and the SMD Exporter. Some of this confusion is my own fault in not always properly documenting things, or sometimes changing things without good explanations.

One mistake that I made when building the SMD Exporter and trying to accommodate all scenarios is that I tried too hard to protect the user from having to learn some fundamentals about Max and Source. Sometimes the methods worked fine but other times they have proven ineffective because I cannot account for all possible scenarios.

So I have started some changes that effect the Origins and transforms of objects when exported by the SMD Exporter. This will also effect the VMF Exporter because the bone orientations are needed in these calculations as well.

I'm looking for feedback from users on this topic. Here are the current options on the table:

Local Origin as World Origin

Current Implementation - At this point, the root node of the WWMT sets the coordinate system for the exported nodes and geometry. This means that whatever direction the local Z is pointing becomes the World Z of the exported model.

Proposed Implementation - The point of the root node becomes the world offset translation of the exported nodes and geometry. This means that the world XYZ vectors remain intact. This makes the orientations of bones identical as they would be should the model be made at world origin. This solves problems where the root node doesn't need to have its XForm Reset (which is bad for root nodes that are bones in a bone system).

The current DEV version has the new implementation right now.

The input needed is how much this will effect current users in current scenes. The scenarios this effects most are 1) You are using the WW VMF Exporter and have a lot of WWMT props that did not have their XForms reset (and are not aligned to the world).

In one scene that I've been working on for a few years now, this entailed that I reset the XForm on one WWMT prop, and then I had to update its proxies in the scene. In my case and knowing the tools available in Max, this took only a few minutes.

I don't know if I should just enforce this new method or if I should make an option to use new/old method. This would add more clutter to the WWMT UI so I am leaning to just enforcing the change.

Lock Origin State

The function probably does not work as originally intended. I will need to look at the code and test. The options are to either fix it or remove it. The purpose of this function is to force the orientation of the root node to remain fixed in the SMD/MDL even if it transforms in world space in Max. This is for scenarios such as a model that is a child of a moving node (maybe a turret on a path) where only the sub-parts should move. The problem (and why this function has not kept pace with development) is that I found it impossible to enforce, because the root node is not necessarily the only unparented node in a model... and determining when to lock just the root node or also the other unparented nodes became problematic. So the way this function has worked has not been tested much with other updates to the SMD Exporter.

Flip (Origin Setting in WWMT/SMD)

This option was added very early in the development of WW. I personally haven't used it in years. It essentially makes a mirrored version of your model. I am curious how many people use this function. If no one ever uses it, I may just remove it from WW. Opinions?



This post is to get some feedback. Feel free to let me know what you think about the scenarios listed here. I'll take all ideas into consideration before finishing this line of work.

[wallworm]

Another UPdate to Dev this evening. This version is getting closer to fixing almost any bone scenario. It's working with CAT/Biped/Bones and other scenarios. There are also updated Material Utilities in the WW Materials menu. I haven't been able to put a lot of time into this because of other work right now, but I may officially release this version this week. If you test the DEV version, please leave feedback.

[wallworm]

These updates and more now rolled out in WW 2.331 .